Wednesday, February 13, 2002
Blue
Hose Sweep Double-Header from Lions in Basketball
MARS HILL, NC - Mars Hill was swept by SAC rival Presbyterian College in a basketball double-header tonight in Stanford Arena. In the opening contest, the Lady Lions (9-2/19-3) ranked 9th in the latest USA Today/ESPN/WBCA National Poll fell to Presbyterian 76-61. Presbyterian's men won, 57-53.
In
the men's game, Presbyterian's Chuck
Rayford (Greenville, SC) hit two free
throws with nine seconds left in regulation to seal a
four-point (57-53) victory for the Blue Hose.
Presbyterian improved to 3-8 in the SAC and 10-13
overall while Mars Hill fell to 2-9 in conference play and
4-17 overall.
After
leading by nine points (33-24) at the intermission,
Presbyterian opened the second half on a 8-to-4 run to lead by
13 (43-30) with 14:43 left in the contest after Rayford
drained a 3-pointer. The
Lions battled back and
cut the lead to two points (48-46) with 6:22 left to play
after John Lewis (Sylva, NC) hit a layup.
Jeff Whittle
(Strasburg, VA) hit a layup and Andrew
Dellinger (Mauertown, VA) hit a 3-pointer to give the
Blue Hose a seven-point (53-46) advantage at the 5:14 mark.
Mars Hill then scored seven unanswered
points to tie the game at 53-53 with one minute left in
regulation. After Dominique Williams (Savannah, GA) hit
a long shot from 3-point range.
Twenty-three
seconds later, Rod Isom
(Anderson, SC) scored on a layup to give the Blue Hose the
lead for good (55-53). With
12 seconds on the clock, Mars
Hill missed a 3-pointer and Rayford pulled down the loose
ball. Whittle and Isom led Presbyterian with 13 points
apiece followed by Rayford with 10.
Isom also pulled down a team-high five rebounds in the
game.
Marcus
Watts (Birmingham, AL) led the Lions with 12 points
followed by Williams
who came off the bench to supply 10.
Chris Starkes (Erlensee, Germany)
pulled down a game-high nine rebounds in the game.
Key
stats of the game: PC scored 22 points off Mars Hill turnovers
... Mars Hill scored 15 second chance points. Mars Hill
will host Wingate University on Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
Presbyterian
will host Lenoir-Rhyne College on Saturday also at 4:00 p.m.